I missed it!
I missed the 100th birthday of Winnie-the-Pooh!
A. A. Milne’s first Winnie-the-Pooh book was published on September 12th, 1926—making the 100th birthday just three days ago.
For we wordies the interesting question is where the name of Christopher Robin’s teddy bear comes from.
The ‘Pooh’ part is fairly straight forward.
Christopher Robin had a soft toy swan that he called ‘pooh.’
This was (apparently) because there was a tradition in the Milne family that if you called a swan and it didn’t come you said ‘pooh’ to pretend that you never really wanted it to come at all.
As for the ‘Winnie’ part—that is an abbreviation of the Canadian city of Winipeg.
In 1914 a contingent from the Canadian Army arrived in Britain to support the British war effort in the First World War (which had just begun).
Among them was Lieutenant Harry Coleman who brought with him a small black bear from his hometown of Winipeg.
The bear became a popular attraction at London Zoo where it was named ‘Winipeg’—and called ‘Winnie’ for short.
Milne and Christopher visited the zoo, were delighted by the bear, and gave the name to the small boy’s teddy bear. And that was how ‘Edward Bear’ became ‘Winnie-the-Pooh.’
Happy 100th birthday to the bear of very small brain!
(By the way, in case you’d forgotten, Teddy Bears go their name from President Theodore Roosevelt. After a bear hunting trip in 1902 a popular political cartoon showed the president with a black bear. Thereafter Roosevelt’s nickname of ‘Teddy’ was transferred to all bear-like soft toys.)
Tonight I will join John Stanley for 'The Word Clinic' on 2GB, 4BC, 2CC and the Tapt Radio Network -- right after the 10pm news (9pm in Queensland).
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BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
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